[development] keeping an eye on old versions

[Fernando Silva]

Hi Bèr

(NOTE: you probably remember me from posting some code on Flexinode area)

As some people know, two month ago I pushed the number of bugs/features
within 4.6 from 8 pages to 2. I was a quite bit annoyed that some of the
patches and questions were not being address by senior developers.

I also have too many drupal 4.6 sites with custom code to upgrade them to
drupal 5 (for me 4.7 was a really bad release, that I decided not to use),
and I have in the present moment 8 projects to be worked, where at least 4
will still be done with 4.6

This means that I have time to test patches, and backport some code from
newer releases to 4.6 (for example, I made some hacks to contact.module to
have a captcha, or even I made some hacks to have contact.module work with
i18n)

I know I am not the best person to maintain a release for two factors:
* I do not have the best english to describe, explain and argument (and a
person should have a good english to make a point)
* I am not in the level like chx, Bèr, Killes, beginner or others. I know
that I have still too much to learn to have strength to maintain a release
like 4.6 (the most stable and complete release so far)

I want to help:
* checking and testing patches
* backporting some features that I really needed
* try to optimize the 4.6 version where it can be done: for example 4.6 does
not run with mysql 5 and I really don't know why; or it still has cache
problems, that some other people still report against about 4.7 and 5.

Best regards,
  Fernando Silva

On 10/20/06, Bèr Kessels <ber at webschuur.com> wrote:
>
> Op vrijdag 20 oktober 2006 15:33, schreef Dries Buytaert:
> > As of Drupal 4.7, each release cycle will have a dedicated
> > maintainer. Gerhard maintains Drupal 4.7, Neil will maintain Drupal
> > 5.0, and I'm on the outlook for a Drupal 6.0 maintainer.
>
> This is not an official proposition yet :). I need to give it more
> thoughts.
>
> But Heine and chx asked me if I am interested in maintaing 4-6, which  am,
> since I run about 7 sites on 4.6 wich I dont want to upgrade (I don't have
> a
> reason to, but thats a whole different story). I have a hosting platform
> where I still run 4.6, untill the owners have budget to upgrade these
> sites,
> so I 'need' 4.6 rather often.
>
> Hence I started http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-4-6-maintainance
>
> I wouldn't mind becoming the maintainer for 4.6, especially if there are
> enough people willin to carry that version together. But biggest issue is
> that my plate is full, too full. So in the case that I were to maintain
> this
> version (I am by far not sure if I am deemed the right person first of
> all!),
> I'd need to drop at least half of my contribs (approx 8); most notably
> flexinode. And I would most probably need to hand over maintainance for
> themes.drupal.org to someone else. I think we should continue this
> particular
> fork in the discussion on infrastructure. :) I am not yet askig anyone to
> volunteer for taking over any of the above-mentioned though :), lets first
> see what needs be done first :)
>
> Also, I would like to know:
> Are there more people willing to spend less-voluntary time on 4.6
> maintainance. It's really not much, but we would need hands and eyes in
> case
> of sec. holes found. I am not 100% available for Drupal. Sometimes gone
> for
> days or weeks (deadlines and stuff).
> Are there more people willing to randomly eyeball patches. And/or backport
> patches. It makes little sense to maintain a 4.6 branch if no-one is
> actually
> doing that maintainance.
> Are there more people interested in a maintained Drupal 4.6 in
> general. 'Being interested' meaning: yes I still run it, and would be
> happy
> if its maintained somewhere.
>
> Bèr
> --
> [ Bèr Kessels | Drupal services www.webschuur.com ]
>
> Drupal repareert drie lekken, waarvan één kritiek:
> http://help.sympal.nl/drupal_repareert_drie_lekken_waarvan_een_kritiek
>
>
>
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